Eduardo Machado, "Tastes like Cuba" (excerpts)

This story is different from the other hispanic literatures covered so far. The speaker is a young, well off eight or so year old.  The beginning is all about food, except this child did not grow up in poverty. The the descriptions of the food are so detailed they almost come to life. The way the speaker describes the morning routine and the process his grandmother used to make cafe con leche reveal how essential food was to the family, but also how sacred it was. Every meal was like some type of ritual. All family members, adults and children, take 3 hours off during the hottest part of the day during lunch, so they have time to eat, rest, and often take a nap. These people were well-off enough to enjoy leisure time. There were also exotic foods and delicacies galore; something much different from the other hispanic readings we have done. Most people think Cuba in the late 1950s and think of The Revolution, and this excerpt allows you to understand how happy and well-off some of the population was before the Revolution, especially the children who had no concept of war. These children were terrified to leave Cuba for America, a place distance and different from the lives and foods they knew as their own.